Microsoft Takes a Swipe at Gmail by Embracing Google Talk

On the surface this may seem unusual, given that Microsoft is pretty loud about its sparring with Google. It has a competing mail service, a rival search engine, and so on.

Except, Google’s messaging client is pretty open. There are lots of other clients that also support Google Talk, like Adium, a cross-platform chat app for OS X. Even you can do it (or you can snag something off GitHub and implement that – though some experience building in Ruby or some other language is recommended before poking around there).

Here’s the bit straight from the developer section:

In addition to the Google Talk client, there are many other clients out there that provide a great communications experience. We believe users should have choice in which clients they use to connect to the Google Talk service and we want to encourage the developer community to create new and innovative applications that leverage our service. To enable this, Google Talk uses the standard XMPP protocol for authentication, presence, and messaging.

It’s interesting if only because Microsoft is trying to lure users of Gmail, one of the widest-used email services on the Web, by using one of Google’s services. Microsoft has loudly railed against its rival in the past — sometimes the saber-rattling can get comical, like Microsoft’s big “Bing It On” campaign.

But a big organization employing an open service that happens to be run by a competitor — that happens. Even if Microsoft is a little louder when it comes to its fighting words with Google.

We reached out to Google to find out if there is anything deeper happening behind the scenes. We’ll update if we hear back.